Always the Quite Kid
by Oomaki-chan
Summary: Jellal is the shy boy who sits quietly in the back of the class. He's not good with people, and his nervousness constantly gets the best of him. But will a life long crush on a certain red haired beauty in his class help to break him out of his shell?
1. Chapter 1

Jellal sat at his desk in the back of the class room. Unlike his many class mates, who were enjoying homeroom by chatting with their friends and rushing to copy the homework they didn't do, he sat quietly reading a book he had borrowed from the school library. As far as friends went, he would probably say he didn't have any. He didn't talk much and aside from the tattoo on his face there was nothing to make him stand out. Even the way he dressed was plain. Right now he was wearing a black long sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans.

As the bell rang and everyone began scrambling to their seats, Jellal marked the page in his book and took out his notebook and pencils. He sat silently. Jellal always found classes rather boring. He was pretty good at picking up whatever was being taught in class on his own while he did his homework, so he spent most of his classes just zoning out, or at least not paying his full attention. Usually he would pick up little crafts that he could do easily in class in order to occupy himself with. Recently Jellal had taken up origami. Hiding a stack of colorful paper in his desk, he pulled out a sheet of origami paper, this one was green, and began folding a crane.

While he worked on his crane, his interest in class suddenly spiked when he heard a certain name get called to solve the problem on the board. Jellal lifted his head to watch the girl as she stood from her desk and made her way to the front of the class room. Her long red hair fell to the middle of her back, even when held in a ponytail. The end of her blue skirt swayed with her hips as her long legs carried her to the chalk board.

Her name was Erza Scarlet. Jellal loved the way her name fit the beautiful color of her silky hair. She was smart. She was beautiful. She was athletic. She was strong. She was everything Jellal adored. Jellal would readily admit that he had a massive crush on the red haired beauty. But unfortunately for him, he was far too soft spoken and shy about these kinds of things. Not that it particularly mattered. He doubted a girl like that would every want to be with a guy like him. Unlike Erza, Jellal was quiet, shy, non-popular, non-athletic, and he didn't think he could even compare his looks to hers.

Jellal watched in wonder as Erza solved the problem on the board. When she finished, she turned around to walk back to her seat. For a split second Jellal thought that they might have actually made eye contact, but he figured that she must have been looking towards Lucy, her best friend, who sat at the desk behind him. Those two were always together, it was only natural that Erza would be looking towards her and not him. Upon realizing this, Jellal slumped back in his chair and went back to folding his colorful cranes.

The morning classes went by painfully slow. By the time lunch finally came around, Jellal had finished making a whole packets worth of cranes. Jellal made sure all of the cranes were tucked away in his desk before grabbing his lunch out of his bag and making his way towards the library. He would always go there during lunch. It was a quiet spot where he could eat his lunch and study for any tests or quizzes that would be later that day. And since he had run out of origami paper for the day, he wanted to pick up a new book to read during class, he was getting close to the end of the one he had previously started. When he arrived in the book filled hall, he immediately went up to the librarian's desk.

"Hey there Jellal. Looking for something?" Said a blue haired girl on the other side of the desk. Levy McGarden was the librarian's assistant. She loved books more than anyone Jellal had ever met and had read every single book in the library. She was one person Jellal could easily talk to, mostly because he saw her every time he came into the library.

"I was wondering if you have any suggestions." He said quietly, looking away from the girl.

"I've got just the thing." Levy momentarily disappeared under the desk. When she came back up, she passed Jellal a book with a hard cover. Jellal looked it over in his hands. "That one just came in yesterday. I finished it last night; it was amazing! I think you might like it."

"Thank you." Jellal tucked the book under his arm then walked deeper into the library. He found a quiet corner in the non-fiction section and sat down to eat. He started the book that he had just gotten from Levy while he ate. It was a rather large book and weighed just about as much as a brick, but he never turned down a recommendation. Although, that was mostly because he had no idea how to. Jellal had a hard time saying no to anyone. Since he was rather shy when it came to talking with others, he usually stayed away from people. Naturally, no one seemed to approach him too, seeing as he avoided everyone. So on the off chance that someone asked him for help, or offered him something, he didn't know how to handle the situation, so he just said yes.

Jellal had managed to finished his lunch very quickly, and after sitting around for a while, he grew bored and decided to just walk back to the class room. He continued reading the book while he walked, that way he could avoid making eye contact with anyone. He could tell he was almost back at the class room when he suddenly bumped into something, the force of which caused him to fall backwards and drop the book. Jellal sat on the ground, rather shocked. He was about to try and push himself up when suddenly a hand reached out in front of him.

"My bad. My bad." When Jellal looked at the person who had said this, he saw a boy with a cocky looking grin and pink hair. Jellal recognized him from one of the other classes, but if that wasn't enough to know who the boy was, then the rumors were. Natsu Dragneel, the crazy pink haired guy who was prone to rampages around the school and always wore a white scarf. Not only that, but he was also a close friend of Erza's. That's how Jellal really knew him. "Here, let me help you up."

"Um. Uh. It's, it's ok." Jellal muttered softly. He tried to shrink away from the boy.

"What are you talking about? I'm just helping you up." Before Jellal could do anything to stop him, Natsu grabbed his arm and pulled him up to his feet. Once Jellal was standing, Natsu ducked down to pick up the book. "Sorry about that. Guess I wasn't looking where I was going."

"Natsu, what's going on?" Lucy came walking up from behind Natsu. "You just ran off."

"Ah. I thought I saw that weird guy from yesterday so I ran after him. Then I hit this guy." Natsu pointed to Jellal with his thumb.

When Lucy looked over at Jellal, the boy felt the sudden urge to panic and flee. He clutched the book tighter in his arms and swallowed what little nerves he had.

"You're that guy who sits in front of me right?" Lucy asked. Jellal did nothing but nod in response. "I know this might be a little rude, but what was your name again?"

"J-j-je-" He tried to keep himself calm and respond clearly, but he didn't have the chance before someone beat him to it.

"Jellal Fernandes." Suddenly Erza came into the conversation as well. When she said his name so clearly, Jellal felt as if one of his many wishes had come true. But what made him happier was that she even knew his name to begin with. "Right?"

"Uh. Y-yeah." Jellal could feel himself trembling a bit. He wasn't used to having people talk to him. Combine that fact that Erza had joined in as well, and Jellal knew he was about to turn into a nervous wreck. He just hoped that Erza wouldn't notice.

"That's a pretty cool tattoo." Natsu butted in, throwing Jellal entirely off guard. The pink haired boy brought his face closer as if to further inspect the purple-red markings on his face. "Where did you get that?"

"Um. I've, um, had it s-since I was a kid." He brought one hand up to his face, as if to try and hide the tattoo from everyone.

"It's awesome!" Natsu crossed his arms behind his head and grinned.

"Ex-excuse me." Jellal whispered as he ran off, back towards the class room. He felt stupid for doing it, and felt like he was just looking bad in front of Erza, but his nerves had gotten the best of him and he had reached his breaking point.

Natsu, Lucy, and Erza all watched the blue haired teen as he ran. "What was that about?" Natsu muttered. "I didn't freak him out or something, did I?"

"No idea." Lucy shrugged. "I'll see if I can get the chance to ask him during class."

With that the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch period. Lucy and Erza made their way into the class room and to their desks. Jellal had a brief panic attack in his head when he remembered that Lucy would be sitting right behind him. He had forgotten that even if he ran, he wouldn't really be able to get away. Jellal had never been so uncomfortable in his life. Feeling the stares of the blonde girl burning into his back while he attempted to continue reading the book. He almost felt like he was going to vomit.

"Psst. Jellal." Lucy whispered, tapping his shoulder before leaning forward and slipping a note onto his desk. Nervously, Jellal unfolded the piece of paper and read what was on it.

'_You ok? You just ran off.'_

Jellal scrambled to try and figure out what to do. He decided he needed to respond, so he grabbed a pen and wrote down what he would have tried to say in a normal conversation.

'_Yeah. Sorry. I'm not good with people.'_

The next part was just trying to figure out how to send the note back. No one had ever passed a note to him before. He knew the basic idea of it. Send a message to a friend without getting caught. Make it look as natural as possible. The only problem was that he didn't know how to make it look natural. He decided to wait until the teacher was turned away before he turned around to place the note back on Lucy's desk. Then he turned back around and waited nervously. He could hear Lucy opening the note up, and then scribble something down. Once again, the piece of paper was thrown over his shoulder and landed on his desk.

'_Ok then. I was just wondering. Glad to know you're alright.'_

Jellal nodded, not wanting to continue talking. He slumped back into his seat and went back to his book. His nervousness was starting to go away as class went on. Thankfully, after the note, he didn't feel like he was being stared down anymore. Lucy was leaving him alone. He no longer had to try and swallow up his nerves.

When the last bell rang, Jellal spent no time at all packing up all of his things and quickly leaving the class room. His head hung low, he walked through the halls, doing his best not to hit anyone like he had the last time. Jellal lived the end of the day. He could go home and just stay away from people. Get his work done when he felt like it, not be bothered by what other people thought. Going home was great.


	2. Chapter 2

Group project. Those two words were Jellal's worst nightmare, especially when used in the same sentence. If they were allowed to pick their partners Jellal would always get assigned to which ever group didn't have enough people, but if partners were assigned then he was almost always put into a group with people he really didn't like. Seeing those two words written in large letters on the chalk board gave Jellal a rather nauseating feeling.

Jellal had walking into his science class directly after lunch only to feel like he was going to puke. The moment he saw the board, he immediately wanted to run, but he knew he would need to do the project one way or another, so he reluctantly sat down in his desk. Besides, if he got lucky, everyone would have a partner and he could work on his own. He turned his attention to the teacher, praying to hear the few words he needed in order to calm himself down.

"The projects you work on will be done in groups of three. You will need to meet up with your partners over the course of this week on your own time. All of the projects are to be done in a presentation that will be delivered in front of the entire class on Friday." As the teacher explained the project, Jellal slowly felt as if the whole universe was against him. This project was gonna be the end of him. It might as well be the equivalent to hell in his point of view. "Use this class period to form your groups and come up with a plan for your project."

Once the teacher was finished, everyone in the class seemed to spring to their feet, running up to their friends and fighting over who would work with who. All except Jellal. He stayed seated at his desk. He wanted to just be able to work on his own, but he knew he wouldn't be able to present something in front of everyone. He could imagine himself passing out, vomiting, having a nervous breakdown, all of which just made him even more nervous. He looked around to see if anyone was still only a group of two. His eyes darted across the room. Jellal's heart skipped a beat when he thought that there was no one else left, but then he saw it. Erza and Lucy were sitting on their own. The two both sat at Erza's desk, and no one else was with them. Did they need one more person? But he could have sworn that he saw a few people asking to work with them. But it looked like this was his best chance. And if they did agree to work with him, then he would be able to spend a whole week working with Erza. That alone would make this whole deadly situation worth it.

Jellal embraced what little courage he had and slowly stood up from his seat. He began walking up to the two girls, who were chatting about what ever. As he got closer he saw some other guy come up to them, probably asking to work with them. Jellal felt like that was it, and that he was too late, but this time he just couldn't work alone. He pushed himself forward until he was standing in front of the girls.

"U-um. Excuse me." He said quietly. Thankfully it was just enough to their attention. Jellal grasped his forearm with one of his hands and looked down shyly. The fact that both girls, especially Erza, were staring at him made his nervousness even worse.

"Are you still looking for a partner?" Erza asked him. Jellal's eyes widened. She knew exactly what his problem was.

"Y-yes." Jellal nodded and continued to look down at his feet.

"Why don't you come work with us." The red haired beauty suggested.

Jellal shot his head up and looked his crush in the eyes. "R-really?"

"Yeah." Lucy chimed in. "We're one person short. Grab a seat and come sit down."

The blue haired teen nodded and turned to grab the nearest chair, saying a quick 'excuse me' and 'thank you' as he pulled it away from its regular desk and moved it to be in front of Erza's. Every ounce of Jellal's body was about to burst with excitement. This was his first time sitting by Erza's desk, as well as the first time someone asked him to join their group.

"So topics are gonna be assigned, which sucks, but I think that whatever it is, we could make a huge poster." Lucy suggested. "We could fill it with pictures and stuff!"

"That would work." Erza agreed. The two kept talking over possible ideas for what the three could do for their project. Jellal kept quiet the whole time though, not knowing when to speak up or what to say. "What do you think Jellal?"

"Eh? Um, uh. I. I'm not to g-good at speaking. So, um." Jellal slowly felt his voice getting quieter and quieter and he began to subconsciously shrink away from the girls.

"Hmmmm. We'll have to come up with a way to make it so that you don't have to talk then." The blonde to his right leaned back in her chair, an intense look of concentration on her face.

"I'm sorry." It wasn't that Jellal wanted to leave all of the talking to Erza and Lucy, because he really didn't want Erza to think that he was useless, he just knew he wouldn't be able to calm down enough to say anything even remotely coherent.

"It's nothing to be sorry about." The red haired beauty waved a hand in front of her face. "But most importantly, we need a quiet place to work."

"I don't know if my house would work. My dad doesn't like it when I bring friends home without any notice." Lucy sounded as if the problem with her father was a lot bigger then Jellal thought it was.

"Um. We. We can use my place." Unlike when he normally spoke, Jellal's voice was clear and loud enough for his two group mates to hear. The outburst from the usually quiet male seemed to have knocked both girls off guard.

"You sure?" Lucy asked, just to make sure it wasn't some freak outburst.

"Y-yeah. My parents are always on business trips and they're never home so I pretty much live alone. So we wouldn't be disturbing anyone." Jellal held onto the edge of his seat as he explained how his home would be perfect. It wasn't the fact that they needed some where to work that made him speak up, they could easily work at the library. But Jellal wanted to use this opportunity to bring class mates home for once. He had never invited anyone to his house before, and he had a feeling that if he offered up his home to work in now, then they might be able to work together again. It was also partially his way of repaying the girls for speaking when he couldn't. "It's just an apartment, but it's pretty big. And we have a lot of supplies, I think. Oh, and we can walk there because it isn't too far away." He ducked away a bit in embarrassment when the two girls began laughing. He hadn't meant to speak up like that. It had all just slipped out of his mouth.

"Sounds perfect." Erza smiled at the blue haired boy, making his heart flutter. "Could we walk back with you after school then?"

All Jellal could manage was a nod. The teacher suddenly told everyone to go back to their original seats, so he put the chair he had borrowed back where he found it, and went back to his own desk. He had a slight smile on his face, but he hid it in his arms as he put his head down on his desk. His head was spinning a bit. Excitement built up inside of him. He was in the same group as Erza for a class project. They got to work together every day for the whole week. She was going to come over to his house. Then sudden realization hit him, and the same things he had just been excited about made him more nervous than he had been in a long time. He had this odd mix of being extremely happy and being a nervous wreck that just made him completely uncomfortable.

After their last class had ended, Erza came up to Lucy and Jellal. The male found himself struggling to look calm as he packed away all of his school supplies. He threw the straps of his back pack over his shoulders and slowly turned to face to girls.

"Please lead the way." Erza said simply, to which Jellal merely nodded.

He didn't talk as he led the girls through the hall ways of the school and out of the building. Both Erza and Lucy chatted away about what they had thought about their classes, things that they noticed throughout the day, and other little things that Jellal couldn't quite wrap his head around the importance of. Walking silently in front of the girls, and rather slowly, Jellal lead the way down several streets and across a few roads until they finally came to a tall apartment building. He held the front door open for both Lucy and Erza before making his way through the lobby and to the elevators. When an elevator finally arrived at their floor, the three teens all entered. Jellal pressed the button for the eighth floor and stood awkwardly as the doors closed. He stared down at his feet the whole elevator ride up. He was pretty sure that his group mates had noticed that he had shut himself away again, but he didn't entirely care. Inside he was having a mild panic attack and he felt that it was best to stay quiet.

Jellal led them once more, this time down a long hallway until he stopped at room 813. After pulling a key out of his pants pocket and opening the door, he turned to the girls. "P-please come in." He said. Them he allowed the girls to walk past him and go into the apartment. He followed behind them, closing the door on his way in. "Um. This is the living room. And o-over there is the kitchen. Um. M-my bed room is over there. And my parent's room is d-down the hall. And um. You can, um, put your stuff where you like. P-please sit down too." Jellal left the girls in his living room and went over to the kitchen. He poured three glasses of water and found a large bag of chips in one of the cupboards, then he placed them all on a tray and carried them into the living room where the girls were both sitting on the large couch. He placed the try on the coffee table in the middle of the area.

"You've got a nice house." Lucy said, admiring the apartment. "When you said you lived on your own I was expecting to see a pig sty of a place."

Jellal didn't know what to make of the comment. Sure he knew that compared to most boys his age, he was very big on keeping things clean and tidy. He didn't know what expectation there were of his though.

"Mind if I look at your room?" The energetic blonde jumped up from her seat on the couch.

"Uh. Um. N-no." Jellal nervously went over to his bed room and opened the door for the girl took look inside. His room had nothing out of the ordinary, a bed, dresser, bookshelf, desk, closet, there was nothing strange or worth hiding. All of the furniture in his room was rather plain, and there weren't any posters or pictures around it.

"It's cleaner then my room." Lucy muttered, letting out a kind of funny sounding chuckle. She then returned to a seat next to Erza.

"Now then, the project." Erza began. She already had her class notes on the coffee table and was ready to begin. "The topic we have to work on is just explaining photosynthesis."

"You're kidding? We need a whole week to just do that?" Lucy scratched the top of her head in confusion. "But that's easy as hell."

"W-we may have gotten the easy t-topic?" Jellal suggested. "We, um, we should s-still do our best."

"Jellal's right." Hearing Erza say that made Jellal's face get hot. He looked down at his lap and nodded his thanks. "We have the time so we might as well use it."

"True." The blonde girl shrugged. "So are we going to stick with the poster idea?"

"I think that would be the easiest." Erza pointed out. "But how about today we just get all of our facts together. Then start working on the actual poster tomorrow."

With that, the three began gathering all of the information they had on photosynthesis. It surprised them when they realized that they actually had lot more than they thought they would. By the time Erza and Lucy had decided to go home, which was after an hour and a half of work, they had filled up a good three pages of things they would need to squeeze into their project. Jellal placed all of their notes in a folder which he kept on the coffee table. He was rather surprised at how easily he had handled that. Jellal had half expected to need to leave to room for some reason about half way through their work period, but he had managed to remain calm enough, even if he didn't really talk. On the inside he was happily celebrating the fact that Erza had come home with him. But even with no one around, he tried to keep the feeling of excitement bottled down.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day, Jellal actually found that he was a bit excited to go to school for once. He was completely ecstatic that he would be able to work with Erza and Lucy after school again. Of course he was still nervous about the whole thing, but he was just happy to be able to work with Erza. He liked Lucy too. She was nice to him, and she seemed like she would be a lot of fun to be around. Plus she was a friend of Erza's, and if she was close to Erza then Jellal knew that Lucy had to be a good person.

Jellal walked into the class room as he usually did, head ducked down and drawing as little attention to himself as possible. But he stopped when he looked up to see his desk. Erza was standing next to Lucy's desk, dressed in a short black skirt and a red sweater that was just a shade or two darker than her hair, while Lucy, wearing a pink shirt and black tee-shirt, was sitting on her own desk. Jellal didn't know how to proceed. The two girls always sat by Erza's desk in the morning. What were they doing there? Should he casually go sit in his desk? Should he try going to the library before school started? Should he just wait in the hallway until the bell rang? There were a lot of possibilities going through Jellal's head, and unfortunately for him, that gave the blonde a chance to notice him.

"Hey Jellal!" Lucy called, waving to him. Erza turned around in order to face him, a movement which felt like a slow-motion movement in a movie to Jellal, and waved with a gentle smile on her face.

The blue haired boy, upon being noticed, began looking around frantically, half hoping that it was supposed to be directed to someone else. When he confirmed that he was the only one by the door, and there for the only one who could be waved to, he gulped and gripped the straps of his back pack tightly before slowly inching towards his desk. When Jellal finally made it, he nodded a quick hello, too afraid to open his mouth. Then he placed his bag on the ground and sat in his desk. He placed his hands in his lap and looked down towards the floor, letting his blue hair hang a bit to cover his face. At times like this, Jellal was happy his hair was a bit on the long side. He was able to squeeze his eyes shut while his face was a deep shade of pinkish-red, and no one would see.

"G-g-good m-morning." He squeaked out at last.

"How are you today Jellal?" Erza asked him.

Jellal's head was spinning. Erza was asking him how he was? She actually asked him! That had to mean she cared, even if a little bit. Right? But then again, that was part of regular conversation. Or at least, that what Jellal thought. He never had these kinds of moments in the morning. How should he respond? He could try and sound cool, like that guy on the cop show he was watching last night, or maybe kind of on the cute side like some character out of a shojo manga. None of those were like him though, and if he had a hard time saying something as simple as 'good morning', there was no way he could pull those off. "I. I'm fine." He said, lifting his head a bit, but still keeping it low enough that his bangs kept his eyes out of view.

"That's good." Jellal was a bit shocked when Erza smiled at him. Seeing her beautiful smile like that, and being directed at him of all people, made his heart flutter and a blush crawl onto his cheeks. He looked up at her as if she was some kind of angel, sent to make him fall head over heels. He wanted to ask her how she was too. The shy boy gripped onto the edge of his chair tightly, bracing himself for the outburst he would have normally tried to restrain.

"How, how are you?" Jellal hadn't even really thought about it, it felt like one of those things he just couldn't control. As he sat in his seat, looking up at the red haired girl, he just hoped she would respond with the same smile she had shone him earlier.

"Pretty good considering it's the morning." Erza chuckled. Hearing her response made Jellal's heart skip a beat. He briefly nodded in agreement, trying to seem as if he understood, but really he just didn't know if he should say anything or not.

"I know what you mean." Lucy cut in. "I hate mornings!"

After that, Jellal found himself no longer able to even attempt joining in the conversation. He didn't know when to speak, not to mention what to say, so he just sat quietly in his chair and listened. He allowed himself to take in every word Erza said. It was nothing more than a simple chat between two friends, but just being able to hear her voice and know that she was so close made him happy, even if he was too shy to admit it.

The bell ringing ended made the quality of Jellal's morning crash. Not because class was starting, but because Erza had to go back to her own seat. Although it wasn't too far away, it was practically on the other side of the class room. Jellal could only watch her from behind as the red haired girl sat neatly in her chair and took out her notebook and box of pencils from her desk. Sometimes Jellal didn't think it was fair. How could one person be so perfect? Everything Erza did always seemed to be done in the best way possible. Perfectly neat. Perfectly calm. Perfectly, well, perfect.

Letting out a sigh, Jellal ducked his head into the book he had gotten from Levy the day before. He had started it last night, and it really was pretty good. Of course, Levy always recommended the best books. One good thing about not being noticed too much was that teachers never cared what he did. That seemed to be the only thing that worked to his advantage. Of course Jellal did wish he could be a bit more, out there? Was that it? Kind of like Natsu, maybe. Jellal knew a lot of people who liked the pink haired loud mouth. He had a lot of friends, could talk with anyone. He wasn't exactly the smartest person in the world, but that didn't seem to cause any problems, not any that Jellal had observed anyways. But the blue haired teen knew that he would never come close to being like Natsu. That kind of radiance is something nearing supernatural.

As class after class went by, Jellal became rather bored. He just didn't feel like doing anything. Doodling in his notebook, he half paid attention to the teacher. Zoning out into some incoherent thought in the back of his mind that for some reason focused on the poster on the wall by the black board. Suddenly, a note slipped onto his desk from behind him. Jellal easily recognized the hand writing. Lucy. The blonde behind him had sent him another note, just like when she had before. Reaching a shaky hand out to grab the piece of folded up paper, Jellal couldn't help but feel nervous again. What did she want? Was it about the project or something? Had he done something wrong? Jellal's mind spun in his head as he unfolded the note.

_Wanna join us for lunch?_

Jellal looked down at the words written out on the paper. She wanted him to go to lunch with them? Who was 'us' anyways? Probably Erza, maybe Natsu. Someone else too, right? Jellal didn't think he could handle it. Lunch with Erza? No way! He would be a blubbering mess. It was bad enough that someone was asking him to go to lunch with them. Already Jellal was nearing hyperventilation. This was too much, too soon. They had only just started talking to each other. Before yesterday they hadn't even said a word to each other. Not outside of small little unimportant things anyways.

While Jellal sat shivering in his seat, another note slipped onto his desk. Jellal picked that one up as well. What did she want now?

_So? You up for it?_

He wouldn't be able to say no, would he? Not with those deep brown eyes piercing into his back. Jellal could feel his hand shaking uncontrollably as he wrote a response on the note. After waiting a moment, to make sure no one was looking, Jellal slipped the note over his shoulder.

_Okay._

Hearing Lucy laughing behind him, Jellal couldn't help but feel embarrassed. He was soon passed another note. This one had '_To Erza'_ written on it. Jellal had been in this kind of situation before and it was nerve racking every time. He slowly slipped the note to the person in the desk in front of him and watched as it secretly made its way across the room to its destination. Lucy and Erza passed each other notes all the time, a lot of people in the class did for that matter. So something like this wasn't out of the ordinary and no one else thought anything of it. Jellal however, watched as his crush opened the note and read what was on it. He couldn't see her face because she was too many rows ahead. The tattooed boy wonder what she was doing. Was she smiling? Maybe she was confused. He didn't even know what was written. For all Jellal knew, she could be embarrassed. Jellal had never seen Erza embarrassed before. He tried to imagine it in his head, but that only made his face go scorching hot. Thinking of the red haired beauty with a hue of pink over her cheeks just made Jellal feel flustered. He ended up hiding his face in his arms that were crossed on top of his desk, hoping that no one would notice him while he was in such a state.

The bell signaling the beginning of lunch made Jellal jump in his seat. He clenched his fists as he tried to gather up his nerves. Having lunch with others, how was he supposed to handle something like that? Especially when one of them was his crush and the others were some of the most talkative people in the school. Shaking in his own skin, Jellal nervously grabbed his lunch and stood up. He turned slowly to see that Erza was already standing with Lucy. Had they been waiting for him? Jellal didn't want to be a burden or anything like that. In a panicked rush, he approached the girls.

"I'm glad you're coming with us." Erza said. The fact that she had chosen to phrase it like that made Jellal's heart flutter. He looked over to the side, still too nervous to look her in the eye, and nodded.

"Well no use hanging around. We can't leave Natsu and Gray alone for too long remember?" Lucy jumped in before turning to walk towards the door. Erza seemed to be completely in sync with her friend, because she had begun walking at the same time as the hyperactive blonde. Jellal had to scurry after them to catch up, only to be stuck walking behind them.

While walking down the hall, Jellal did what he usually did. Meaning, he tried to hide himself in his own clothing and attract as little attention to himself as possible. This proved to be a lot harder than normal though, with Erza and Lucy being as loud as they were. Just about everyone looked over in their direction, even for a small glance, which meant everyone also caught a glimpse of the nervous wreck of a boy behind them. After making countless turns and passing the library, which was Jellal's usual sanctuary, the three teens made it to the Cafeteria, a place Jellal had avoided since his first day of school. It was always crowded, always loud, and always made him feel like he was gonna be sick. But at least this once he had to suck in his gut and try to make it through one lunch period.

Erza and Lucy led the way through the swarm of hungry teens, towards a round table that was rather empty, aside from two guys, one of which he recognized to be Natsu, who seemed to be having a staring contest of some sort. For a moment, Jellal could have sworn he saw lightning strike between the two. Every inch of his body was screaming at him to turn around and get out of there, but he forced himself to stay. He watched as the two girls he had been walking with just before nonchalantly sat down next to the boys, who snapped out of their strange dispute as soon as the girls approached them, leaving Jellal standing awkwardly by the table.

"What are you doing standing?" Lucy asked, noticing that the blue haired boy was still looking down at his feet. She grabbed onto his wrist and pulled him down to the space on the bench in between her and the guy he didn't know.

Jellal awkwardly shifted to that he was sitting upright, his lunch placed on the table in front of him and his arms locked straight, fists in his lap. He looked down at his hands, feeling the gaze from the two boys on him.

"Who's this?" The boy next to him asked. He was kind of close to the same height as Jellal, although he was clearly much better when it came to build. Unlike Jellal, who was a thin as a twig, he clearly had a good amount of muscle, although it wasn't too visible. His dark hair outlined his face which seemed much sterner and more chiseled.

"Ah! You're that guy I ran into yesterday!" Natsu called, jumping up from his seat and slamming his hands on the desk. The sudden action shocked Jellal to the point where he could feel himself trembling again.

"U-um. Y-y-y-…y-yes." He squeaked out. His voice was barely audible due to the loud surroundings and Jellal's already soft voice.

"Sorry about that." The pinkette scratched the back of his head. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

"You never look where you're going." The black haired boy mumbled.

"What was that!?" Something about the smug line had made Natsu snap. Before Jellal could even comprehend what was going on, the two were chasing after each other, running circles around the table. "Gray, you bastard!"

Gray, who was apparently the black haired boy, suddenly grabbed unto Jellal, pulling the nervous boy out of his seat and using him as a shield to guard him from the pink haired menace, who was chasing him down. Upon seeing the hostage, Natsu stopped running and glared at Gray. The two girls at the table, who had originally ignored the dispute, looked up from their lunches to watch and make sure the boys didn't hurt Jellal. They had gotten others involved before, and it didn't always come out as planned.

"You cheater!" Natsu yelled.

"I'm not cheating. I'm using my surroundings to my advantage." Gray rebutted. He gripped Jellal's shoulders and stood his ground behind the shaking boy, who was thoroughly frightened. Natsu and Gray seemed to be growling at each other, which made Jellal all the more scared. Soon the blue haired boy found his breathing becoming harsh and his knees shaking underneath him.

"Come on you two. Cut it out." Lucy came out of nowhere, standing between the two.

"But Luce! He pissed me off again." Natsu complained to the blonde.

"Natsu. Gray." Erza said calmly. Although her voice came out smooth and not even slightly threatening, both boys seemed to be shaking in their shoes as they slowly made it back to the seats at the table. Although they did continue to glare at each other as they sat down.

Jellal took a moment to catch his breath before slowly sitting down in the space between Gray and Lucy. He gulped down what he could of the saliva in his mostly dried out mouth and tried to shrink away from the other teens. He had been thankful to learn that the little scrimmage hadn't drawn too much attention from any others, possibly because the cafeteria was extremely crowded, or maybe this was one of those fights that he had heard occur repeatedly and everyone was just used to it. Either way though, Jellal was still rather shaken after being used as a human shield for someone he had never met before.

The blue haired boy slowly opened his lunch and pulled out its contents. A sandwich, a small bag of chips, and apple, and a small bottle of water. Slowly, he began eating, taking small nervous bites. He tried to shrink away from the conversation that had started between the group of friends who surrounded him.

"You really live on your own?" Gray asked Jellal. The blue haired boy didn't really know how the conversation ended up this way, just that it had gone from class work, to the project, and now to his life style.

"Y-yeah." Jellal nodded slightly.

"His place is really clean too!" When Lucy spoke it sounded as if she was surprised. "Even his bed room!"

"What were you doing in his bedroom?" The dark haired teen looked at the blonde with a skeptical expression.

"No~thing." Lucy teased. The tone in her voice made a shiver go down Jellal's spine as well as make a slight blush creep along his cheeks.

"We were just taking a look around." Erza took a sip of her own drink while simply explaining the situation.

"Can we go with you guys next time?" Natsu asked out of the blue. The pinkette's sudden question made Jellal jump. He had a bit of a hard time dealing with the much louder boy.

"Er…..um…." Jellal mumbled, hiding his face.

"You don't even remember his name, and you want to go to his house?" Gray interrupted Jellal.

"I do to! It's….Jerry! His name is Jerry!" Natsu yelled.

"Jellal you idiot!" Lucy yelled at the idiotic boy.

"Yeah yeah." Natsu waved off the girl yelling in his ear.

"U-um!" Jellal broke into the conversation. He cursed his own voice for cracking the moment he tried to raise it. But, thankfully, it had been enough to catch the attention of the quarreling pair. "I-I d-don't mind if….if he c-comes too." Jellal's sentence slowly turned into a whisper as it got closer to its end.

"Heehee." A large grin appeared on Natsu's face, slightly scaring Jellal in the process. "Awesome!"

Jellal couldn't quite believe himself. Somehow he had managed to drag himself into one of the worst situations he could imagine. By the end of lunch he had ended up inviting both Natsu and Gray to his place after school. Add the fact that Lucy and, of course, Erza were already coming over, and Jellal was prepared to have one of the worst panic attacks of his life. Just last week he had never had even one friend over, and now he suddenly had a whole group? Not to mention the fact that Lucy had said she would start dragging him to lunch with them everyday form now on. What was his life becoming? If it weren't for the fact that Erza had been there, Jellal would have probably not even gone, let alone make all of those promises. He didn't want to look stupid in front of her, and yet, he had a feeling that putting himself through these kinds of situations was only gonna cause more harm than good to his image, not that he had much of one. This was going to be a living hell.


	4. Chapter 4

Jellal was sure of it. He had gone insane, hadn't he? What in the world was he thinking in the first place? He wasn't the kind of person to do these things, and that really wasn't about to change soon. So how did it get to the point where he was sitting around in his living room with some of the loudest people in his grade? Crouched into the corner of the couch, Jellal silently watched as his guests conversed, trying to process everything in his head. It wasn't that he didn't like having people come over to his house. In fact, he rather enjoyed it. Since he had never had anyone over to just hang out before, to Jellal, this was both amazing and frightening.

The large bag of chips Jellal had taken out and placed on top of the coffee table for a snack had been scarfed down, mainly by Natsu and Gray. Jellal came out of the kitchen, carrying a tray of newly refilled glasses of water and a second bag of chips.

"Thank you." Erza looked up at Jellal and smiled as the shy boy placed a glass in front of her.

"U-um…Y-y-you're w-welc-come." He stuttered. He could feel his face heating up and tried to use his long bangs to hide his face. After passing out the last of the glasses, he went back to his seat on the edge of the couch.

"At least get the food in your mouth you bastard!" Gray yelled at Natsu. The pink haired teen was stuffing his cheeks full of the salty chips. Crumbs were falling from his mouth with every crunch that sounded.

"Shut it jerk-wad." Natsu retorted, crumbs only falling from his mouth as he spoke. The two guys glared at each other as if trying to dare the other to make the first move.

"U-u-um. P-please don't f-fight inside." Jellal raised his voice to get the attention of the two. He could feel his heart pounding when he thought he would be ignored. Thankfully both Gray and Natsu actually listened to him. Jellal let out a shaky breath, letting his nerves relax some. He loosened his grip on the glass in his hand, which he only just now realized he was holding, and shifted back into his seat.

"Try not to get into an argument when you're a guest in someone's home." Erza said to Natsu and Gray. For a moment the two looked like they were frightened of the red haired girl, but the feeling faded almost as instantly as it had appeared.

"Yeah, yeah." Natsu muttered as he once again began stuffing his face with chips.

It wasn't long before the group of teens got bored of simple chats, and switched on the TV. They all enjoyed laughing at, and making comments about the comical show that Jellal had never even heard of. The blue haired boy didn't watch too much TV on his own. He preferred reading a book to television or the internet. He wasn't one for video games either, although he had never tried most of the ones that he would hear classmates talking about. Most of them seemed too violent for his taste anyways.

Watching this show was a lot of fun though. He didn't understand anything about the characters, or the plot for that matter, but his guests were enjoying it. What made him the happiest though was that Erza was enjoying herself. Her back was facing him, so he could only watch her long red locks from behind, but he could hear her laughing at the funny parts. The red haired beauty would occasionally turn her head to talk to Lucy, who sat next to her. In those moments Jellal would catch a glimpse of her smile, which only made his heart flutter and his face turn red.

Right at the start of one of the commercial breaks, Erza stood up from her seat on the floor and looked directly at Jellal. "Mind if I use your bathroom?"

"N-n-n-not at all." Jellal's voice shook as he tried to compose himself. "It's j-just down the hall. R-right next to m-my room."

"Thank you." The girl flashed him a smile before walking down the hall as directed. Jellal allowed his eyes to follow her as she left. His gaze was so fixated on the way her crimson hair swayed with every step she took, that he didn't even notice Lucy leaning over the coffee table and staring at him until she cleared her throat.

The noise snapped Jellal back to reality, where he was then faced with the blonde's face much closer to his than he was comfortable with. The sudden realization of how close he was to the girl caused his to, quite literally, jump out of his seat and fall on the floor. He could feel the blood pounding in his ears as he sat on the floor, trying to calm himself down from the sudden shock.

"Geez Luce. What'd ya go spooking him for?" Natsu looked at the girl in question with a curious and amused face.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to." Lucy reached a hand out to help Jellal up. The boy took it carefully, trying to will his arm to stop shaking in the process.

"N-no worries." The blue haired boy sat back down on the couch, lifting his glass of water to his lips and ducking his head down. It was clear to the other three in the room that he was trying to hide his face. Still feeling the stares of those around him piercing into his skin, Jellal nervously lifted his head, his eyes rapidly moving around the room to avoid making any eye contact.

"You like Erza, don't you?" The remark made Jellal lose the breath in his lungs. He began to cough as he looked up to see a slight smirk plastered on Lucy's face, Natsu and Gray looking wide eyed at him. Jellal could feel his nerves building up. His already shaking limbs threatened to lose control entirely. He struggled to slow his breathing and regain the ability to talk. He could feel himself trying to open his mouth slightly to try and speak, but no noises came out.

"Really?" Gray said in disbelief. Jellal's bright red face was definitely giving him away. "I never would have guessed."

"Haha! You're kidding me?" Natsu laughed, causing Jellal to droop his head down and try to find a better way to hide his overly embarrassed face.

"You know," Lucy sat next to the near panicking boy, leaning against his arm a bit. "If you really want to hide it, I would recommend not staring at her so much." Jellal only nodded. He still was a bit too nerve-wrecked to talk.

"What's going on?" Suddenly Erza walking back into the large room. She had a confused expression on her face upon seeing Lucy sitting so close to Jellal, Natsu laughing on the floor, and Gray with an awfully surprised look.

Hearing the red haired girl's voice made Jellal panic. He jumped up out of his seat and ran passed Erza, making his way into the bathroom and shutting the door behind him. The four other teens all watched as the blue haired boy fled from the room.

"Must have really needed to go." Gray shrugged, trying to make the room feel more natural.

Erza decided to dismiss what she had seen and retake her seat on the floor. Lucy left the couch and moved to sit back down next to her friend.

By the time Jellal managed to drag himself out of the bathroom, the commercial break had long since ended and the four teens in his living room were looking as if they had been sucked into the TV, if not for the slight remark that was made here and there. Jellal forced himself to move back to his seat on the end of the couch, and sat with his knees bent against his chest. He was happy to know that no one was making a big deal about what had happened.

It was rather late by the time everyone had left the apartment, all except Jellal of course. After the episode of what they were watching ended, Erza had forced Gray and Natsu to sit and do their own school work while she, Lucy, and Jellal all worked on their project and other homework. They had gotten a considerable amount of work done before it had started getting late and they packed up for the day. Everyone had left before six o'clock, giving Jellal plenty of time to make a quick diner for himself and finish up all of his homework.

Replaying what had happened in his head, he still could feel his cheeks burning. Jellal cursed himself for being so weak that he needed to run off and hide, although he knew that if he had stayed out with everyone than he probably would have been much worse off. He really didn't want to make a fool of himself in front of those four. They were the first people in the school that he felt like he would be able to get along with. Natsu was rather rowdy and extremely loud, but he seemed like the kind of guy who was just looking for some fun. Gray put off a cold front, but Jellal figured he was actually a pretty nice guy. Lucy, well, she was talkative and didn't have many boundaries as far as personal space seemed to go, but she was definitely a good girl who didn't even care that he was shy. And of course, there was Erza. Jellal was just amazed that she would talk to him. To him she had always seemed to out of reach, even if they were in the same class. He only hoped now that things could run smoothly enough for her to stay around him. That alone would be enough for now.


End file.
